The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between metabolic response and prognosis in NSCLC by using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and/or computed tomography (18FDG-PET/CT) imaging following treatment. Patients who had had 18FDG-PET/CT before and after treatment for NSCLC were studied retrospectively. The use of 18FDG-PET/CT allowed for the assessment of heterogeneous metabolic response (HR), which is the metabolic response difference between any metastases and the main lesion. And researchers looked at how well HR correlated with clinical outcome.

There were 56 patients with NSCLC included in the research, with 56 having primary lesions and 491 having metastases. Patients with stage IV illness and high-metabolic-burden metastases were more likely to have HR (46.4%; 26/56). Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were negatively linked with HR (P<.001 and P=.045, respectively). According to the results of the multivariate analysis, HR was an unfavorable independent prognostic factor for OS (HR = 4.36; 95% CI, 2.00-9.49; P<.001) but not for PFS (P=.469). There was a correlation between HR between lymph node metastases and decreased OS (P<.001) but not PFS (P=.370).

After NSCLC treatment, HR was found between main and metastatic lesions using PET/CT. A high heart rate is a strong indicator of a dismal prognosis and a substantial independent prognostic factor for overall survival.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1525730422001644

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